Folic acid promotes the myogenic differentiation of C2C12 murine ...

3 downloads 0 Views 940KB Size Report
Aug 10, 2015 - E-mail: nadkim@pusan.ac.kr. Key words:folic acid, .... Vantaa, Finland). ..... Brouwer-Brolsma EM, Ham AC, Dhonukshe-Rutten RA, van der ...
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR MEDICINE 36: 1073-1080, 2015

Folic acid promotes the myogenic differentiation of C2C12 murine myoblasts through the Akt signaling pathway SEONG YEON HWANG1, YONG JUNG KANG1, BOKYUNG SUNG1, MINJUNG KIM1, DONG HWAN KIM1, YUJIN LEE1, MI-AE YOO2, CHEOL MIN KIM4,5, HAE YOUNG CHUNG1,3 and NAM DEUK KIM1,3,4 1

Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, 2Department of Molecular Biology, 3Molecular Inflammation Research Center for Aging Intervention, 4Research Center for Anti-Aging Technology Development, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735; 5Department of Biochemistry, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do 626-770, Republic of Korea Received April 17, 2015; Accepted August 10, 2015 DOI: 10.3892/ijmm.2015.2311

Abstract. Folic acid is a water-soluble vitamin in the B-complex group, and an exogenous intake is required for health, growth and development. As a precursor to co-factors, folic acid is required for one-carbon donors in the synthesis of DNA bases and other essential biomolecules. A lack of dietary folic acid can lead to folic acid deficiency and can therefore result in several health problems, including macrocytic anemia, elevated plasma homocysteine levels, cardiovascular disease, birth defects, carcinogenesis, muscle weakness and difficulty in walking. Previous studies have indicated that folic acid exerts a positive effect on skeletal muscle functions. However, the precise role of folic acid in skeletal muscle cell differentiation remains poorly understood. Thus, in the present study, we examined the effects of folic acid on neomyotube maturation and differentiation using C2C12 murine myoblasts. We found that folic acid promoted the formation of multinucleated myotubes, and increased the fusion index and creatine kinase (CK) activity in a concentration-dependent manner. In addition, western blot analysis revealed that the expression levels of the muscle-specific marker, myosin heavy chain (MyHC), as well as those of the myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs), MyoD and myogenin, were increased in the folic acid-treated myotubes during myogenic differentiation. Folic acid also promoted the activation of the Akt pathway, and this effect was inhibited by treatment of the C2C12 cells with LY294002 (Akt inhibitor). Blocking of the Akt pathway with a specific inhibitor revealed that it was necessary for mediating the stimulatory effects of folic acid on muscle cell differentia-

Correspondence to: Dr Nam Deuk Kim, Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Pusan National University, 63 Beon-gil 2 Busandaehag-ro, Geumjeong-gu, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea E-mail: [email protected]

Key words: folic acid, C2C12 muscle cells, myogenic differentiation, Akt signaling pathway, MyoD, myogenin, myosin heavy chain

tion and fusion. Taken together, our data suggest that folic acid promotes the differentiation of C2C12 cells through the activation of the Akt pathway. Introduction Folic acid, the fully oxidized monoglutamyl form of folate, is a water-soluble vitamin found mostly in green vegetables, peanuts, legumes, strawberries and orange juice, predominantly as polyglutamates (1). The mammalian system cannot synthesize folate de novo; therefore, an exogenous dietary supply of this vitamin is necessary to meet the daily requirements. Folic acid is the precursor to co-factors which act as one-carbon donors and are necessary for the synthesis of DNA bases (2). For this reason, folic acid is an essential dietary nutrient required for healthy cell growth and division. Folic acid deficiency has been linked to various human diseases, such as neural tube defects, atherosclerosis and cancers (3-5). In addition, Li et al (6) found that folic acid deficiency during pregnancy affects the skeletal muscle development of piglets. Folic acid is able to regulate high levels of homocysteine, as 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, the predominant form of dietary folate, functions as a methyl-group donor in the conversion of homocysteine back to methionine. Elevated levels of plasma homocysteine have been linked to reduced mobility and muscle function (7). Betaine, another methyl donor which is also involved in homocysteine remethylation, has also been reported to regulate homocysteine levels (8). Recently, betaine was shown to promote muscle fiber differentiation and increase myotube size through insulin-like growth factor (IGF)‑1 pathway activation (9). Hyperhomocysteinemia is associated with ischemic stroke and osteoporotic fractures in elderly men and women (10). A double-blind, randomized controlled study with elderly patients who had suffered a stroke demonstrated that oral treatment with folate and vitamin B12 decreased the incidence of hip fractures compared with a placebo control (11). This treatment may also improve postural stability and/or muscle function and strength, as folic acid regulates homocysteine levels. Overall, these aforementioned studies suggest that folic acid supplementation improves muscle function.

1074

HWANG et al: FOLIC ACID PROMOTES MUSCLE CELL DIFFERENTIATION

The differentiation of skeletal muscle cells is a highly organized process which is governed by muscle-specific transcription factors belonging to the MyoD family, such as MyoD and myogenin, as well as by the myocyte enhancer factor-2 (MEF2) family; cell differentiation involves highly complex processes, including withdrawal from the cell cycle, the expression of myotube-specific genes and cell fusion to form multinucleate myotubes (12-14). In addition, the activation of myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs), including MyoD, myogenic factor 5 (Myf5), MRF4 and myogenin, also regulates the expression of several muscle-specific genes, such as myosin heavy chain (MyHC, the major structural protein in myotubes) and creatine kinase (CK), in muscle fiber-type maturation (15,16). MyoD and Myf5 are essential for myoblast identity and act early in myogenesis to determine myogenic fate (17-19). Myogenin is essential for myoblast differentiation and acts at the late stages of myogenesis to control the fusion of myoblasts (19). Myoblasts, with controlled increases in the expression of MyoD, Myf5, myogenin and MRF4, and decreases in the activity of cell cycle regulatory factors, terminally differentiate into skeletal myocytes and fuse to form myotubes (20). Akt (also known as protein kinase B) is a serine/threonine Ser/Thr) kinase with key roles in the proliferation, survival, differentiation and viability of muscle cells (21,22). Akt controls both protein synthesis, through the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, and protein degradation through the Forkhead Box O transcription factors. mTOR has also been recognized as an important player in muscle cell differentiation. Akt/mTOR has been investigated in studies involving in vivo and in vitro models of skeletal muscle hypertrophy and atrophy (23,24). Definitive proof of the myogenic function of mTOR was provided by a study which revealed that a rapamycin-resistant mTOR mutant fully rescued C2C12 differentiation in the presence of rapamycin (25). When the phosphorylation of mTOR by Akt occurs, the activation of the 70-kDa ribosomal protein S6 kinase 1 (p70S6K1) and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E‑binding protein-1 (4E-BP1) is then possible; this event is important for the promotion of muscle growth, as p70S6K1 and 4E-BP1 stimulate protein synthesis (26). Similar to the other members of the phosphatidylinositol kinase-related kinase family, mTOR is a Ser/ Thr protein kinase that plays an important role in a nutrientsensitive signaling pathway which regulates cell growth. It has been shown that myocytes isolated from S6K1-/- mice do not exhibit a hypertrophy response to IGF-1 stimulation, indicating that p70S6K1 is necessary for myotube hypertrophy (27). The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of folic acid on muscle cell differentiation using C2C12 murine myoblasts. We provide evidence that the supplementation of folic acid enhances myogenesis and induces the expression of MyoD, myogenin and MyHC in C2C12 cells. We also demonstrate that folic acid increases muscle differentiation through the activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway. Taken together, these data suggest that folic acid exerts a beneficial effect on muscle cell differentiation. Materials and methods Reagents. Folic acid, LY294002 and monoclonal antibody against β-actin (Cat. no. A5441) were purchased from Sigma-

Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). Folic acid was dissolved in 1 M NaOH to generate 100 mM stock solution and stored at -20˚C until use in the experiments; dilutions were made in culture medium. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) was obtained from Amresco (Solon, OH, USA). Antibodies against MyoD (sc-760), myogenin (sc-576), MyHC (sc-20641), phos­phorylated (p-)Akt (Ser473; sc-7985-R) and Akt1/2/3 (sc-8312) were all purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc. (Dallas, TX, USA). Antibodies against p-mTOR (cat. no. 5536), mTOR (cat. no. 2983), p-p70S6K1 (cat. no. 9234), p70S6K1 (cat. no. 2708), p-4E-BP1 (cat. no. 2855) and 4E-BP1 (cat. no. 9452) were all purchased from Cell Signaling Technology (Danvers, MA, USA). Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) was purchased from Welgene, Inc. (Daegu, Korea) and horse serum (HS) was from Invitrogen (Grand Island, NY, USA). Fetal bovine serum (FBS) and penicillin-streptomycin were purchased from GE Healthcare Life Sciences (Logan, UT, USA). A Creatine kinase enzymatic assay kit (MaxDiscovery™ creatine kinase enzymatic assay kit) was purchased from Bioo Scientific Corp. (Austin, TX, USA). Cell culture. Murine C2C12 myoblasts were purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA). For the maintenance of the C2C12 myoblasts, the cells were cultured in growth medium consisting of DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS, 100 U/ml penicillin and 100 µg/ ml streptomycin in 5% CO2 at 37˚C. The growth medium was changed every 2 days. Induction of myogenic differentiation. For the induction of myogenic differentiation, the C2C12 myoblasts at 80-90% confluence were transferred to differentiation medium composed of DMEM supplemented with 2% HS in order to initiate the differentiation of the myoblasts into myotubes. The medium was changed with fresh differentiation medium every 2 days. Measurement of cell viability. Cell viability was determined by MTT assay. The cells were seeded in 6-well plates and incubated in culture medium until they reached 80-90% confluence. The medium was then switched to differentiation medium, and the cells were treated with or without folic acid (0, 10, 20, 50 and 100 µM) and observed after 6 days. The cells were incubated in the dark with MTT reagent (0.5 mg/ml) at 37˚C for 2 h. The medium was removed, the formazan was dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and the absorbance at 540 nm was measured using an enzyme‑linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) plate reader (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Vantaa, Finland). Measurement of CK activity. The cells were washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and then lysed with lysis buffer [40 mM Tris (pH 8.0), 120 mM NaCl, 0.5% NP-40, 2 µg/ ml aprotinin, 2 µg/ml leupeptin and 100 µg/ml phenymethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF)] and complete protease inhibitor and stored at -70˚C until use. CK activity was determined using a CK enzymatic assay kit (Bioo Scientific Corp.), according to the manufacturer's instructions. Briefly, 250 µl CK reagent were added to 5 µl cell lysate in a microplate. CK activity was immediately measured 2 times at 5-min intervals at 340 nm. Each assay was performed in duplicate. The average 5-min

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR MEDICINE 36: 1073-1080, 2015

1075

absorbance increase was multiplied by 2,186 (conversion factor) to obtain the CK activity (IU/l). Immunofluorescence staining and determination of the fusion index. The C2C12 myoblasts were cultured in 6-well plates and cell differentiation was induced with the use of differentiation medium with or without folic acid (0, 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 µM) for 6 days. For immunofluorescence microscopy, the cells were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for 20 min at room temperature. After the cells were blocked in 2% normal goat serum, they were then incubated with primary antibody at 4˚C for 24 h. mouse antiMyHC antibody was used at a 1:200 dilution. MyHC was detected by incubating the cells with goat anti-mouse Rhodamine Red-X (1:1,000; Jackson ImmunoResearch, Bar Harbor, ME, USA) at 4˚C for 1 h, and 4'-6-diamidino-2-phenylindol (DAPI) was then used to label the nuclei. All images were taken using a confocal microscope (FV10C-W), using the same exposure time, and were analyzed in VS-FlexGrid Pro 8.0J (both from Olympus, Tokyo, Japan). Differentiated myotubes in a specific microscopic field were observed under x20 magnification. Either the total number of nuclei or the number of nuclei within MyHC-positive myotubes was counted in 5 fields/sample. The fusion index was calculated as follows: (%) = (number of nuclei within MyHC-stained myotubes/total number of nuclei) x100. All experiments were performed 3 times. Western blot analysis. The C2C12 myoblasts were cultured in 6-well plates and differentiation was induced with the use of differentiation medium with or without folic acid (0, 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 µM) for 6 days. For western blot analysis, the myoblasts and differentiated myotubes were washed with PBS and homogenized in lysis buffer. Following centrifugation (14,240 x g) at 4˚C for 15 min, the supernatant was collected and the protein concentration was determined using protein assay reagents (BioRad, Hercules, CA, USA). Equal amounts of protein extracts were denatured by boiling them at 100˚C for 5 min in sample buffer (Bio-Rad). The proteins were separated by 6-15% sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and transferred onto polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes (Merck Millipore, Berlin, Germany). The membranes were blocked with 5% non-fat dry milk in Tris‑buffered saline with Tween-20 buffer (TBST; 20 mM Tris, 100 mM NaCl, pH 7.5 and 0.1% Tween-20) for 1 h at room temperature followed by incubation with primary antibodies specific for each protein at 4˚C for 24 h: MyHC (1:800), MyoD (1:1,000), myogenin (1:1,000), β-actin (1:50,000), p-Akt (Ser473) (1:1,000), Akt1/2/3 (1:1,000), p-mTOR (1:3,000), mTOR (1:3,000), p-p70S6K1 (1:3,000), p70S6K1 (1:3,000), p-4E-BP1 (1:3,000) and 4E-BP1 (1:3,000). The blots were washed with TBST buffer and then incubated with horseradish peroxidase-conjugated secondary antibodies (1:3,000; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc.) for 1 h at room temperature. Immunolabeling was carried out using an enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) detection system (GE Healthcare, Piscataway, NJ, USA). Statistical analysis. Statistical software (version 10.0; StatSoft, Inc., Tulsa, OK, USA) was used for statistical analysis. Data are presented as the means ± SD. Data were analyzed using the Student's t-test. A P‑value